Rock Candy

Hey everyone! I know, I'm slacking already... We have been really busy lately! So in the next post I'm going to make up for it by posting the recipes that won awards in the cooking competition I entered :)

First, let's walk through the Recipe of the Week... Rock Candy!

This recipe is really simple, but it takes 10-14 days for the candy to form. So if you plan on making this for an event, plan accordingly...

First thing you need are mason jars. I used the same size mason jars as we used for the cake last time, but if you want to make more per jar than I would go for the gallon sized glass jars (shown in picture above). I'm going to give you the whole recipe, but I halved it and still have plenty of sugar syrup left over for my next batch.

Things you need:

- 9 lbs (18 cups) sugar
- 1 1/2 qt water
- bamboo skewers
- 1 egg white, lightly beaten
- 2 tbsp sugar
- food coloring (opt)
- mason jars w/ hole in lid

The bamboo skewers need to be longer than the jar you are using so that the lid will hold them in place. To get the lid to hold them in place, you will need to poke holes through the thin metal piece of the lid. I used a screw driver and a hammer to lightly tap a hole in the top. (sorry about the sideways picture)

Once you have the holes punched set the mason jars aside. Preheat the oven to 200*F. Then you are going to take the sugar and water and put them into a clean sauce pan. When it reaches a boil, cover it and boil it for 5 min. Remove the pan from the heat and using a wet brush, brush any sugar crystals off the pan sides. Recover and let sit undisturbed for ONE HOUR. If you are going to add color, now is the time to do so.

I made blue and green. I poured half of the still hot sugar syrup into a bowl and added blue. The other half I left in the pan and dyed it green. Make sure to keep it covered after coloring.

While that is sitting, you are going to take your egg white and brush it onto the part of the skewers that will be sticking into the mason jar. Then roll the egg part of the skewer in that 2 tbsp of sugar that we set aside. The sugar should coat the skewer and stick nicely. Set it on a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan and slide them into the oven to bake for 30 minutes to adhere the sugar.

Once the syrup has cooled for an hour, pour it into your mason jar(s). Then take the back end of your skewers and push them up through the lid so that they are secured. Place the skewer/lid onto the mason jar and screw on tightly. Then set them aside for at least 10 days.

Just for reference, I was able to fill up 2 1/2 mason jars with half the recipe. When you pull them out, let them dry overnight on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. You can reboil the syrup and use it again. To reuse it, bring the syrup to a boil and then boil it for 10 minutes. From there, repeat all of the above steps from covering and cooling it.